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WhiteBlaze Pages
I am looking for ideas and suggestions of what you would like to see in an Appalachian Trail guidebook.
Please post your ideas and suggestions here. This is a private forum. The only person that can see your post is you and the books author.

Advice

I just received an email from a family that just got hit with a scam that I wanted to make everyone aware of. Here is a portion of the email.

I am the father of a thru hiker that just completed the AT this month. Our family just got hit by a scam we believe involves AT hikers that anyone on the trail or planning to be on the trail should be aware of. There is a scam ring on social media watching those who complete the trail, and, if they can determine who their elderly relatives are (also through social media), they attempt to pull off the 'Grandma Scam'. They contact the grandparents posing as the hiker saying they've been in an accident, need money, not to tell their parents - and elderly grandparents fall for it, and send money to the scammers using numbers from untraceable Target or similar gift or bank cards - typically around $2,000-$4,000 worth. It is a masterful scam- they know their families and know their grand kid just completed the trail and are on the way back home etc. The scammers string of phone numbers are landlines from NY State. We think all hikers (current and future) should alert their families of this scam.

You’ve got kids. Now what? Does that mean you have to put away your tent and pack your trekking poles for the next 18 years? Luckily, the answer is no. You will, however, have to change your goals a bit. Instead of trying to trek the entire Appalachian Trail in one go, you might need to break it up into more
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My trail crew had hauled in 70-pound packs to this desert 200 miles from the Northern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail. It was on this trip, while we worked in a particularly arid day, that I had my first experience with an ultra light hiker. We had noticed a figure moving towards us through the heat. He was wearing tennis shoes and clothing that hung in tatters, and his pack appeared to be a child’s school bag, held together with duct tape. His eyes were wild as he asked us where the next spring was so he could fill the single water bottle he carried. Explaining that he planned to reach Canada
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On a long distance hike we all learn tricks we never read about in books. Like: Hanging washed socks on my pack with a safety pin, then when they are still a little damp tossing them in my sleeping bag so my body heat dries them completely. On a wet day an excellent fire starter is alcohol hand sanitizer but watch the blue flame. Filtering water through a bandana to remove the floaties before treating it were three tricks I learned the first week out. We know there are a million more tricks backpackers use to make their hike more pleasant.
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Back before our thru-hike, I compiled this for the many people in my life who had no clue what we were about to undertake. So what follows is a VERY basic overview of some general trail advice that someone new to hiking could perhaps benefit from. I was doing some computer clean-up last night and found it. I post it here as a general guideline for people who come to whiteblaze to obtain information on their newfound hobby of backpacking, even though many will not agree with some of the ideas (ie, please withhold criticism). I simply cut and pasted it from a word document, so the format may be a little weird, but I tried to clean it up as much as possible. The original document had more information and also many tables, pictures, figures, and appendices, which I have not included. Its simply stripped down to text (minus a few other sections) for the most part. My hope is that the new hiker may perhaps find something beneficial in the process. Happy hiking!__________________________________________________ _________
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